Work under way to adjust Coliseum for baseball

LOS ANGELES &#8212; Work is under way to transform the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum into a baseball stadium for the Dodgers' March 29 exhibition game against the Boston Red Sox.

The game is expected to draw the largest baseball crowd in U.S. history. There have been 90,505 tickets sold, the most for any baseball game since 1959, according to Dodgers spokesman Josh Rawitch.

About 25,000 standing-room tickets go on sale Saturday.

The Coliseum was the site of the largest crowd for a baseball game in U.S. history &#8212; 93,103 for a May 7, 1959, exhibition against the New York Yankees honoring catcher Roy Campanella, who was paralyzed in an auto accident. Crowds for three games in the 1959 World Series all exceeded 92,000, the largest for official games.

Dodgers owner Frank McCourt said that adding dugouts, bullpens, fencing, a dirt infield and pitching mound will cost about $400,000.

&quot;What we're simply doing is pausing for a day, acknowledging that this is where it all started in L.A.,&quot; McCourt said. &quot;We're sort of revisiting an old home with old friends.&quot;

The Dodgers played at the Coliseum from 1958-61 when Dodger Stadium was under construction.

The team is trying to replicate the unique Coliseum baseball experience for one night. Its years at the Coliseum are most remembered for its unusual configuration and record crowds.

When the Dodgers played at the Coliseum, the left field fence was 251 feet from home plate. Then-baseball commissioner Ford Frick ordered the team to erect a screen in left field to prevent pop flies from becoming home runs. At its highest point at the foul pole, the fence was 42 feet high.

Removal of the running track to install additional seats has made the Coliseum's floor 88 feet narrower. As a result, the left field fence will be 192 feet away from home plate March 29.

The screen will be nearly 60 feet high and bear the words, &quot;ThinkCure,&quot; the Dodgers' recently formed cancer-fighting charity which will receive all the net proceeds from the game.